Black Out

Posted on 15 Aug 2016 @ 7:47pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale
Edited on on 16 Aug 2016 @ 2:04am

2,134 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Click Three Times
Location: Main Bridge
Timeline: MD 6 || 1345 Hours

What's that? Harvey's senses asked as the olfactory system detected something odd. His nose twitched, taking in an extra dose of air.

Foul! his nose cried out. Somehow its alarm reached the right senses as Harvey's brown eyes shot open, bringing him fully back into the world of the living. Darkness was traded for flickering orange light and a foul stench. Though his vision was perfect, Harvey had a bit of ringing in his ears in addition to a haze that hindered his thoughts. A shower of sparks fell from tear in the ceiling in front of him, the light from which was not strong enough to distract from the fire coming from the starboard bank of consoles.

Captain Geisler slowly sat up and began to take in his surroundings. The bridge had certainly seen better days, and from the looks of things, even if power was fully available, he doubted the bridge would be even functional. In spite of it all, Harvey was pleased that he'd had the foresight to send Commander Teixeira to Engineering to transfer command functions.

Harvey groaned as he tried to push himself fully off of the floor. "Report!" he called out, unsure if he'd even get an answer.

Lieutenant Di Pasquale lay in a senseless heap on the floor, her eyes closed and her breathing sounding ragged but other than that, the Chief of Security didn't move.

"Ensign?" Harvey asked, approaching the helm. "Do we have..." his voice trailed off as soon as he saw the ensign's burnt face. A glance down at the helm revealed a tear in its surface. Harvey checked immediately for a pulse and found none.

Sighing, he turned towards the rear of the bridge. Pain suddenly shot up his left leg. He looked down to see bits of shrapnel sticking out of his upper thigh. They didn't feel like they went very deep, and the pain thankfully was not enough to distract him. At least, not until he knew his crew was okay. "Temerant? Camila?" he asked, starting to move towards the rear of the bridge.

Camila coughed and gasped at the same time as an excruciating pain shot through her chest. "I'm here..." she wheezed. "...Captain." She felt as tired as if she had climbed through the entire ship via the Jeffries tubes with an iron band around her chest.

Harvey staggered around the command platform to see Lieutenant Di Pasquale on the floor. Hearing her wheezing, he changed gears, heading straight for the nearby equipment locker for a medkit. He knelt down beside her and chose to reach out to help her sit up before opening the medkit.

The young Security chief gasped again and squeezed her eyes tightly shut. "F-f-feels like I broke a rib," she coughed which caused her to pale, but the flickering orange light of the fire wasn't enough to reveal it or the slight blue discoloration of her lips.

The Captain opened the medkit and found the tricorder. Withdrawing the sensor, he activated both and began to perform a quick examination of her abdomen. The glow from the tricorder revealed his frown. "Cracked is more like it," he informed her. "You've also punctured a lung. We've got to get you to sickbay."

Harvey tapped his badge. "Geisler to sickbay." No response came, and when he tapped his badge again, he couldn't hear the familiar chirp. "Geisler to anyone."

"Doesn't..." Camila paused. "sound like they hear you," she managed a moment later. "Get me up." She paused to cough and winched. "I've had worse." It was a lie, but she knew she had to get mobile if the smell of burned material filling the air was any indication of the state of the rest of the bridge was like.

"Not just yet," Harvey cautioned, reaching back into the medkit for a hypospray and one of the vials. He inserted the vial into the hypospray with ease and quickly thumbed the combination for ten ccs of Terakine. "This will help," he said as he pressed the hypo against her neck. "But I highly recommend saving your violin practice until after we get you to Doctor Abrams."

She breathed a sigh of relief as the pain subsided, but that caused her to cough again and she looked up at him. "Captain's...got jokes, but you...you get front row seats." A thought struck her and she looked around in the dim lighting. "Where's...where's Temerant?"

He'd smiled at her response, but that smile quickly disappeared when he realized that the Trill Operations Chief hadn't yet responded. "Stay put," he told her, as he closed the tricorder and replaced the sensor. He then fumbled with the folded tricorder pouch on his belt, trying to stick the device inside.

Bast moaned. There wasn't a single part of his body that didn't hurt. Even his spots were hurting. But as he tried to move, he determined that nothing was broken. He had flashes of an ice cliff coming at him at breakneck speed, and the flash of pain that followed, in Wilem Bast's final moments.

The acrid smell of burning plastic came to his attention, followed by the roar of flames. Adrenaline suddenly surged through his veins. He opened his eyes, to see the remnants of the Bridge, bathed in the wavering light of the flames, filled with smoke.

He quickly pushed himself to his feet, and grabbed a fire extinguisher from underneath his console. He ran to the flames, and emptied the small canister on what was left of the Environmental and Engineering consoles.

He looked around the darkened Bridge, and took in the damage. His eyes lingered on the Helm officer, before moving on to the shadows in the background. As they moved, he realized it was the Captain's form, kneeling over another fallen officer -

Camila!

He quickly ran to her side. "Are you all right?" he asked, careful in where he placed his hands on her so as not to injure her further.

"Captain....Captain Geisler says I have to hold off on playing violin...for a bit," Camila said, forcing a slight smile even though it was the last thing she wanted to do when she saw Temerant. The smile was for him, but her wheezing breath made it a chore to talk.

With Bast's arrival, Harvey pulled the tricorder back out and began to scan the Trill male. Even if he didn't visibly look injured, it didn't mean there was anything happening internally.

The tricorder beeped and whirred, scanning the host and the symbiont. It found lots of bruises and contusions, but no broken bones, and no internal injuries.

Harvey closed the tricorder and replaced the sensor. "Come on you two," he told them as he placed the tricorder back in its pouch. "We can't stay here. With no fire suppression, the smoke will build up to toxic levels soon. And," he said, looking at Camila, "We have to get you to sickbay pronto."

Camila took a breath and braced herself, then reached for the lip of a station. "Time to make the donuts," she muttered.

Harvey reached for her free hand and did his part to lift her off the floor. He figured Temerant would want to take the lead for lifting Camila from the floor.

Bast scooped up his beloved, placing her arm around his shoulders so she could steady herself. He lifted her up, ignoring the warning signs being sent by his lower back.

"Let's hope the Jeffies tubes are still accessible," said Bast. "With the computer down, we can rule out the turbolifts."

Camila coughed and flecks of blood coated her lips and she closed her eyes. "Sorry," she said as she tried to support herself as much as she could.

"We can use the access corridor through the Ready Room," Harvey suggested. "We'll have to use the Jeffries Tubes from there, but it'll make the journey easier."

Bast nodded, and let the Captain lead the way. Carrying Camila in his arms meant that he couldn't be the one opening doors.

Harvey dashed through the smoke towards the Ready Room. He opened the door panel and used the manual release level to open the doors. "This way," he said, leading then to the hidden door near the restroom. He had to open that one manually as well to reveal a dimly lit ramp.

The hidden tunnel in the head of the Captain's Ready Room amused Camila and she filed it away for questions later about why it wasn't detailed on the Security layout of the ship. That was a big risk, but she knew that once she was able to, she would be adding it to that map.

Bast followed the Captain through a maze of Jeffries tubes and darkened corridors. Together they managed to carry her to Sickbay without causing her any further injuries, which had been Bast's chief concern. They walked through damaged corridors and tried to take in some of the damage. There was hardly any light. They walked past one junction that had exploded, leaving behind a pile of debris, and the body of one poor crewman who had been caught in the explosion. Damaged plasma conduits were blasting off steam, and structural beams were jutting down from the ceilings. Bast deliberately ignored a few uniforms lining the corridor, filled with nothing but ash - there would be time enough for that later.

The doors to Sickbay were finally a few yards ahead of them. Bast hoisted Camila in his arms, reaffirming her grip on her as the Captain led the way.

It made Harvey sick to see the piles of ash along the way. In all his hope that the Thalaron weapon had been a hoax, seeing those that had fell victim to the deadly radiation made the last week weigh so heavily on his shoulders. He would mourn later, as soon as he knew his ship and crew were safe again.

Camila did her best to remain still while Temerant carried her, but she still coughed and buried her face against his chest when she saw the piles of ash. She only had a broken rib and a punctured lung. Others never had a chance at all, and even though the Romulan wardbird had been destroyed, she vowed to stop the Consortium if it was the last thing she did.

Every cough from Camila wracked the hell out of Bast's nerves. Every time she coughed, he wanted to set her down and scan her with hte tricorder, worried that somehow he had hurt her, jostled her too much, or somehow made her worse. He wanted nothing more than for her to be on a biobed right that instant, and to hold her until she was better. But he also knew that he had a job to do, and a greater responsibility to everyone else on board the ship. It was tearing him apart, but he knew that he had to leave her in the Doctor's excellent care, and immediately head for Engineering.

Spotting Sickbay ahead, Harvey, still leading the way, said to Temerant, "We'll need to get to Engineering as soon as possible. We've got to get the ship moving." He stopped and turned around. "I have to check on a few things. Can you take care of her from here?"

"Of course," replied Bast.

Harvey nodded and entered the nearest Jeffries Tube. There was a matter he had to attend to on Deck Six before moving on to Engineering.

Bast walked the last few meters to the door, which was partly open. He squeezed his shoulder into the opening, and pushed it open.

There were voices in the darkened Sickbay. The medical staff, rousing and beginning to ascertain their current status, he guessed.

"Hello?" he called out.

Immediately he heard movement on his left, and he made out the dim silhouette of Nurse T'Lura, carrying a tricorder and a palm beacon. She cast her light on Camila, and started scanning her.

"Bring her to the biobed," commanded the Vulcan. "They are currently inoperative, but we are managing with tricorders and portable scanners."

Bast nodded, and carried Camila to the nearest biobed. T'Lura helped him to get Camila settled as comfortably as possible. The nurse then walked away to get a doctor.

"I have to go now," said Temerant, stroking Camila's forehead.

"Be...be careful, Temerant," Camila said. "I'll be okay." I hope she thought as she looked up into his eyes. "I'll see you soon."

Tears were welling up in his eyes as he leaned down and kissed her tenderly, his hand holding hers tightly.

"I'll be in Engineering," he said as he straightened. He gave her hand one final kiss before he turned, and walked out of Sickbay.

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